Winners of the Coveted 2007 Award for Political Incorrectness
by Carey Roberts | View comments |
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For journalists and academics everywhere, the Duke lacrosse case seemed to validate deeply-held beliefs on race, class, and sex in America. But Dave Evans, Reade Seligmann, and Collin Finnerty were less interested in academic theories than the actual truth.
The Duke lacrosse case represents an enduring failure of the American mainstream media. Not only did the New York Times, CNN, USA Today, and other outlets neglect their duty to provide balanced and factual coverage of the case. Worse, they became the public relations arm of a sleazy prosecutor named Michael Nifong.
As so often happens in rape cases, the media featured lurid accusations made by an anonymous victim, all the while omitting the word “alleged” and failing to offer the defendant the opportunity to present his side of the event.
In the Duke case, it was the Raleigh News and Observer that led the headlong rush to judge. Its March 25, 2006 issue featured a front-page five-column article with the headline: “Dancer Gives Details of Ordeal: A Night of Racial Slurs, Growing Fear, and, Finally, Sexual Violence.”
Media sensationalism doesn’t get much worse than that.
The Durham Herald-Sun followed suit, eventually printing more than 300 articles and 20 editorials that savaged the innocent players. Soon a lynch mob atmosphere prevailed on the patrician Duke University campus.
So by the time the members of the Duke lacrosse team were formally charged with the gang rape of Crystal Gail Mangum, they found themselves arrayed against a powerful coalition of interest groups and leftist rabble-rousers: the office of the county prosecutor, the Durham Police Department, the media establishment, and the Duke faculty Group of 88.
Extraordinary pressure was placed on the young men to admit to the misdeed. At an early interview a policeman warned Dave Evans, “Tell us the truth or you’re going to jail for the rest of your life.” Local feminists organized a rally with signs saying, “Time to Confess.” On March 29 a “Please Come Forward” poster with mug shots of the players was posted on campus.
During mass Father Joe Vetter broadly condemned the players. When one of the player’s fathers confronted the priest over his unsaintly remarks, the Man of the Cloth shot back, “Tell them to confess first.”
At one point Michael Nifong issued this threat to the players’ defense attorney: “You tell all of your clients I will remember their lack of cooperation at sentencing. I hope you know if they didn’t do it, they are all aiders and abettors, and that carries the same punishment as rape.”
The problem was, no rape had occurred, no one had touched the woman. Even Nifong knew the charges were probably fictitious. At a secret March 27 meeting the prosecutor and his detectives reviewed the numerous evidentiary flaws with Nifong concluding, “You know we’re f*cked.”
But the May 2 primary election was still a month away and Crystal Mangum was Nifong’s ticket to electoral success. Justice would have to wait for another day.
The Duke lacrosse case was also marked by steely courage and heroism.
Ed Bradley, who aired his 60 Minutes expose on October 15 — the last before his death from leukemia – deserves high commendation for bucking the media stampede. The North Carolina State Bar must be credited for launching its investigation. And the relentless fact-finding by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, which culminated in their book Until Proven Innocent, is laudable.
But most of the kudos must go to the Duke lacrosse team and to the three players falsely accused of rape — men who, with dignity and grace, endured a self-possessed media spectacle for over a year.
True, hiring a deranged stripper for a team party wasn’t the shrewdest idea. And within days the team publicly apologized for its behavior. The same cannot be said, however, for the Gang of 88 members, CNN’s Nancy Grace, or for the many editors around the country who ran libelous articles about those “scummy white males.”
Throughout the episode the Duke lacrosse team hung together, cooperated with the police investigation, answered their questions honestly, volunteered to undergo DNA tests, and above all, refused to stoop to the antics of the Nifong prosecution team and his media enablers.
On May 15, 2006 team captain Dave Evans stood in front of the Durham County magistrate’s office and declared, “These allegations are lies, fabricated – fabricated, and they will be proven wrong . . . You have all been told some fantastic lies.”
This past April attorney general Roy Cooper vindicated Evans’ claim when he famously announced, “we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges.”
So the 2007 Award for Political Incorrectness goes to Dave Evans, Reade Seligmann, and Collin Finnerty, three young men who refused to go quietly into the night.
careyroberts@comcast.net
Read more articles by Carey Roberts
And may all those who convicted these young men prior to any trial be sued in to poverty including the ignorant Duke faculty and administration members that bore false witness.
Comment by J3 | December 27, 2007
What is the "Mainstream Media"? As Selwyn Duke would say, "A place where ideology isn't rejected when it departs from truth but where truth is rejected when it departs from ideology."
So there is nothing "mainstream" about the MSM. It should be dubbed the "Leftstream Media", LSM instead.
Comment by sedonaman | December 28, 2007
The "rush to judgment" by the "Duke faculty group of 88" was particularly abhorrent and speaks to a "lock-step politically correct mindset" of a group of academics who consider their judgments, however obtuse and ill-advised, to be morally superior to lesser mortals. Their "teachings and advice" should henceforth be shunned.
Comment by patriot-1 | December 29, 2007
patriot-1:
And what is the academy? As Selwyn Duke would say, “A place where ideology isn’t rejected when it departs from truth but where truth is rejected when it departs from ideology.”
When you consider these instututions were established to pursue truth, the sad state of affairs of higher education in America becomes starkly evident.
Comment by sedonaman | December 29, 2007
I have my simple solution to at least several of the problems here. Re-take our universities from the thugs on the left. Bankrupt the news media with boycotts, and sue the city into oblivion. This is the only thing that these thugs understand. We need a leader to step forward and bring all these to justice. After all, isn't that what they wanted?
Comment by hvance | December 29, 2007
hvance:
“Re-take our universities from the thugs on the left".
This is easier said than done.
As I posted in the past, passing ballot initiatives appears to get us nowhere because the government’s “Stasi apparatchiks”, a.k.a. race hustlers, at best just ignore them even after they pass court muster. California’s Prop 209 is a classic example of not only being ignored but also being turned on its head – literally. In addition to a new “Vice Chancellorship for Equity and Inclusion,” there is an active University of California “Committee On Affirmative Action and Diversity.” In addition, there is a “UC President’s Task Force on Faculty Diversity” whose job is also to find ways around Prop 209.
Why do these even exist years after Prop 209 was declared constitutional? Answer: To find ways to nullify the will of the people because obviously the hoi polli riff-raff are not as enlightened as university professors who know what’s best for society.
Not only are the people un-enlightened, they don’t care enough to do anything; and the Leftist university thugs know it, as do the state law enforcement administrators.
Comment by sedonaman | December 30, 2007
sedonaman:
I totally agree with you, what I said is practically impossible. It was no more than a wish for a return to normalcy, or normalcy as I see it. After I posted my grandiose ideas I pretty much put them on the shelf in the back of my mind. Your post has caused me to re-think if this could be done. Of course it would be very difficult as we have ceded the power to the idiot (I refuse to refer to them as elite) educational types that run the schools. To find the way to change things is to go to the power base of what drives these non-productive professors. It is simply put, money! Where do they get this money? Obviously from the government. Until we as a people take back the power from the "gang of 535" in Washington, this and other lunacies will occur on a regular basis. For me this answer is the Fair Tax, once this method is understood for tax collection, the people will have their power back. No longer would congress be able to buy votes by giving away "grants" to study sex habits of kangaroos and how it affects the spotted owl in California. Forget the bridge to nowhere. Bush just signed an omnibus bill that had over 12,000 "grants" (code word for vote manipulation) tacked onto it. I wonder how much worse off would America would be if these 12,000 were not on the bill? By now I guess you realize that I'm a fiscal conservative in my approach to government. Small government is the answer. Probably impossible to obtain but a forest fire starts with one spark. By the way, I assume you live in California. All that I hear is the impending financial catastrophe on the California horizon. The legislature doesn't have the political will to either cut spending or worse, raise taxes, which will result in defaults left and right. How much longer can this go on? California is like the point man in the platoon, they lead the way for the rest of the country. It is loaded with great entrepreneurs, scenery, etc. In my estimation if California said, "Stop, enough! no more!", the rest of the country would follow lock step and our country could return to its greatness that it once had. Sedonaman, this reply is turning into a speech so I guess I had best step down from the podium and give the floor back to someone who is not so far in "right" field. May you have a good day. hvance
Comment by hvance | December 30, 2007